Seattle–not the San Francisco Bay Area–has the fastest growing market for software engineers, according to new research from LinkedIn. The report, published on LinkedIn’s blog, also noted that Seattle offers a median compensation rate of $132,000, the second highest in the country, despite being a cheaper place to live than other big cities.

For the report, LinkedIn mined its own data on software engineers, looking at skill popularity, geographic spread, and professional networking opportunities. The number of open tech jobs continues to grow, and certain skills stand out in the job market, the report found.

According to the report, machine learning and data science are the most in-demand skills in tech. There are far more open jobs for those skills than there are professionals to fill them, the report said.

SEE: How to build a successful data scientist career (free PDF)

In addition to being sought-after, jobs in data science and machine learning also pay well. Despite the novelty of the field, it has the highest media compensation of any tech job in the US, $129,000, the report said.

In terms of geography, Seattle may be the fastest growing market, but San Francisco still dominates in terms of compensation, job demand, and available talent. However, Seattle also offers a much lower cost of living than San Francisco. Seattle’s median compensation is also $20,000 higher than New York City, also with a lower cost of living.

As software engineers leave San Francisco, many are choosing to settle in cities like Los Angeles and Boston, the report said. Los Angeles lays claim to a major diaspora of mobile engineers, while Boston boasts the third-highest median compensation rate at $111,000.

Professionals in the market for a new job shouldn’t rule out cities like Dallas and Philadelphia, either. The report said that they have low talent supply relative to their job markets, calling them “hidden gem” cities.

Networking also plays into the job search, as 56% of software engineers already new someone at the organization they moved to before they took the job. Software engineers also regularly look for job opportunities, and update their resumes and profile pages, the report found.

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

  1. Seattle has a faster growing software engineering market than San Francisco, a LinkedIn report found.
  2. Skills in data science and machine learning are the most sought-after among engineers by hiring organizations, the report found.
  3. More than half of all software engineers who take a new job know someone at that company already, according to the report.